A young man enters a darkened room: he sits down and fastens his seatbelt. In front of him, a real leather steering wheel with a classic design—let's say '90s. Under his feet, three pedals. Then, the screen lights up: Milan appears, rush hour, rain falling. The goal is to cross Corso Buenos Aires without the autopilot: a "mission" that costs 80 euros an hour, but it's worth it. He smiles nervously, his hands sweating. He sets off. In another room, a 35-year-old woman traces cursive letters on real paper: every curve is an adventure. The calligraphy course costs 200 euros a month. In 2025, it sounds absurd. In 2050, it will be normal. Today's jobs are becoming tomorrow's hobbies. And some don't even wait for these little predictions of the future of mine.
When writing becomes a profession
Friuli Venezia Giulia has done something that sounds bizarre: it has created the Sign technicianIt is the first Italian professional qualification dedicated to teaching calligraphy in schools. And, far from nostalgia, friends: this, whatever anyone says, it is practically a necessity. The cases of dysgraphia increased by 163% in the last ten years. Children no longer know how to hold a pen. In the UK, only one in ten writes by hand every day. Fourteen years ago it was 50%.
La Scriptorium Foroiuliense Foundation It trains professionals who teach how to trace signs on paper, like blacksmiths were trained in 1850. Or mechanical watch repairers in the 1970s. It's a bit like hiring experts to teach you how to tie your shoelaces.But it works: neuroscience shows that writing by hand develops areas of the brain that typing ignores. Memory, coordination, and thought organization. All processes we're delegating to screens.
In 2025, two legislative proposals have been introduced in Italy: a national handwriting week and a mandatory hour of calligraphy in primary schools.
Any easy predictions? Calligraphy could become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, like traditional blacksmithing techniques, the art of Neapolitan pizza making, or Murano glassmaking.
Driving will be an extreme sport
Thousands of Waymo robotaxis are already operating in San Francisco. In Wuhan, China, driverless taxis have been licensed since 2022. By 2030, Goldman Sachs expects 632.000 robotaxis Only in China. Self-driving cars have emerged from fantasy and have entered logistics at full speed. And when logistics takes over, the human experience becomes… a luxury.
Small predictions: a city where manual driving is illegal, based on statistical evidence and because autonomous vehicles reduce accidents by 85%. AI systems don't get distracted, they don't drink, they don't look at their phones. After a few years of reliable data, governments will begin to ban human control in urban areas. First in the historic centers. Then in high-density areas. Then everywhere.
And at that point? Private circuits will be born. Tracks where you pay to drive in simulated traffic. Not speed races, but normality racesCrossing an intersection with a red light and distracted pedestrians. Parking in the second row under your house. Cursing a scooter that cuts you off. All experiences that are now part of our daily routine and that in twenty or thirty years will be childhood memories. Like lighting a fire with matches or developing photographic film.
Vintage programming and other professional cosplay
There are already those who organize programming competitions with precise rules: only libraries released before 2015No AI support, no autocomplete, nothing at all. Just text editors, paper documentation, and your brain. A bit like chess tournaments that ban analysis engines. Or mental arithmetic competitions that exclude calculators.
Il World Economic Forum predicts that 70% of the professions that will exist in 2035 do not yet exist. Seventy percentBut he says little about what happens to the professions that exist today. Where will they go? Will they all really disappear forever? No. Some will turn into extensive experience. In authenticity. In rare expertise. Even in fun.
Small predictions: being a project manager will become a professional cosplay. How to simulate Zoom meetings with unstable connections and colleagues on mute. Or fill out Excel spreadsheets without automatic formulas. Or even write formal emails without AI suggestions.
All activities that are daily work today and will be niche hobbies tomorrow. Today, some enthusiasts reconstruct 1950s offices complete with typewriters and rotary telephones. Is that true or not? So, do you see that I'm right?
An over the top answer to the wrong question
When we talk about automation, the question is always the same: what will we do if robots take away our jobs? It's a question that presupposes unemployment, perhaps universal income, and many (too many) existential crises. But part of the tragedy becomes farce: that's why my little predictions aren't unfounded, however ferocious the irony may seem. Yes: We'll do the same jobs. We'll just call them hobbies and pay to do them..
Every technology that makes a skill obsolete automatically creates a niche of enthusiasts who preserve it. analog photography even after the advent of digital. The turntables vinyl records have been selling for more than twenty years. mechanical typewriters They have a thriving market on eBay.
It's the human need to maintain control over structured and complex processes. To sense the resistance of the physical world, to draw a line between intention and execution without digital mediation. When everything becomes easy, the difficult becomes precious.
- virtual simulation experts They're already designing environments where people can learn obsolete skills in an immersive way. Virtual reality to simulate 2020 offices. Headsets to drive manual cars in digitally reconstructed cities. Software to write code without AI assistance in forgotten languages.
Three trends already underway
Calligraphy It has already become a specialized profession. Sign technicians exist. Courses cost hundreds of euros. Schools are reintroducing mandatory handwriting lessons.
Autonomous driving It is a reality in dozens of cities. China foresees 632.000 robotaxis by 2030When it becomes mandatory, manual control will be a nostalgic memory.
Vintage Programming Competitions They already exist. Developers competing using only pre-2015 technology. Like blacksmiths reconstructing medieval swords using period techniques.
These are small, niche predictions. They won't change the world, but they say something about how the world is changing. About the value we place on skills when they become rare. About the irony of paying to do what our grandparents did for free. And about the possibility that the answer to the question "what will we do when robots replace us" is simply: what we did before. Just for fun.
Until someone, somewhere, starts organizing mock corporate meeting competitions. And then, perhaps, we'll have gone too far. And I'll pass anyway.
